Artist’s rendition of satellites orbiting the Earth – rottenman/123RF Stock Photo

The first rideshare launch of 2022 should see over seventy-five satellites put into orbit by SpaceX’s Falcon 9 Transporter 3 this week. Taking off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, in Florida, the launch is scheduled for Thursday after 15.25 GMT.

As expected on such a launch there are lot of Cubesats and PocketCube satellites, and interesting, significantly more than half the payload are Earth Observation satellites. These include:

• 44 strong constellation of Planet’s Flock-4 optical cubesats
• Capella 7 and 8 which are the final two high-resolution SAR satellites in Capella Space’s six satellite Whitney constellation offering sub 0.5 m spatial resolution.
• XR1 SAR satellite from R2 Space which is the first satellite of an intended eight strong constellation. They are, reportedly, US-built copies of the ICEYE satellites and will provide data to the US Government.
• Umbra-02 is the second commercial high-resolution SAR satellite to be launched by US firm Umbra. The first was launched last year, and the ambition is for a twenty-four strong constellation.
• Sich 2-1 is a Ukrainian micro satellite aiming to image the Earth’s surface in the visible and near-infrared wavelengths, as well as to monitor Earth’s magnetosphere parameters. It is built under the National Space Program.
• CShark Pilot-1 is a nanosatellite built by Italian company CShark. Again, the first of a future constellation, it aims to collect data for variety of applications such as telemedicine, traffic and parking, energy efficiency and agriculture, amongst many others.
• Three PocketCube satellites from Scottish firm Alba Orbital. Unicorn-2A, Unicorn-2D, & Unicorn-2E are the first three NightLight satellites, of a constellation of eleven, providing a high resolution night-time dataset.
• Stork 1 and 2 are developed by the Polish company SatRevolution, and are optical cubesats offering a ground resolution of up to 5m and onboard processing. They are expected to be part of a fourteen satellite constellation. SatRevolution also have the SW1FT cubesat on the launch which is an in-orbit payload demonstration.
• ETV A1 is a nanosatellite from the UK firm Sen. This cubesat aims to stream videos from space, which will be freely available via an app. It’s reported as having 1.5 m spatial resolution and this launch will be first of a constellation, with four more expected this year.
• VZLUSAT-2, which is a cubesat from the Czech University of West Bohemia in Pilsen. It has an optical camera with ground resolution for 30 to 50 m, and several high-energy particle detectors.

In addition to the EO payload, the other satellites onboard include:

• Two picosatellites from WISeSat, which will provide secure Internet-of-Things connectivity for the authentication of NFT (non-fungible token) authentication. The company also claims that the launch will create the first ever NFT from space!
• Delfi-PQis a PocketCube picosatellite developed by the Technical University of Delft in the Netherlands
• PION-BR1 is a Brazilian PocketCube satellite to demonstrate the PocketQube platform and attitude determination system
• SATLLA-2 is another PocketQube satellite, which is an educational mission from the Ariel University in Israel. It’s LED’s will flash brightly enough to be seen from Earth. It will also take low-resolution photos and broadcast these via amateur radio.
• Grizu-263A is a minisatellite from Turkey designed by students from the Engineering Faculty of Zonguldak Bulent Ecevit University (BEU)
• Hades satellite has a payload of a miniature camera module that sends the captured images as an audio signal, and was Department of Radioelectronics of the Brno University of Technology in the Czech Republic.
• EASAT-2 satellite was designed and built jointly by AMSAT-EA and students of the European University and has a cargo of basaltic material from Lanzarote, with aim to determine its evolution in space.
• PyCubed-1 is from Stanford University in the US, and is a PocketCube satellite to demonstrate the smallest-ever spacecraft with full 3-axis attitude determination and control.
• Tartan-Artibeus-1 is a PocketQube nanosatellite aiming to demonstrate the viability of batteryless PocketQube nanosatellites, and was developed by students from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, USA.
• Four Kepler Communication cubesats.

There are expected to be a few other satellites confirmed before the final launch, but it certainly shows that 2022 is starting big and EO options are developing with new players and new technology.